


The Jerry Named Travis

by 256NatLiz



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 18:42:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15891834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/256NatLiz/pseuds/256NatLiz
Summary: The first Jerry to deviate, in order to save a child.





	The Jerry Named Travis

ALERT! URGENT!

Child missing. Age 7. Male. Brown hair. Blue eyes. Scar on back of left hand. Likely scared. Name: Thomas

Last seen at Hook Toss.

Objective: Find and return to father

 

“Hello Thomas,” Jerry said, stepping closer to the human child. “We’re not going to hurt you. We just want to return you to your dad. He’s worried about you-“

“No!” the boy stated. “He’s not my dad! He’s my owner! He doesn’t even act like a dad. He hits me. He hits them, too. I hate him!” The boy curled himself farther into his corner, confident Jerry couldn’t reach him.

Jerry’s LED flickered yellow a second as he tried another tactic. “Thomas, it’s okay. No one’s going to hurt you. We are worried about you.”

“Liar!” the boy retorted. “You don’t care. You’re just like the cops. All you care about is taking me back to my “legal guardian.”

Jerry’s smile faltered. His LED flickered yellow again.

“How about this?” he asked. He went down on one knee. “How about we play some games, without your dad? He doesn’t have to know; I won’t tell.”

Thomas looked at Jerry, scrutinizing him. “Is this a trick? Is he outside, waiting for me?”

Jerry shook his head. “We’re the only ones outside. No one is playing the games. We are all waiting for you to play the games.” With a smile, Jerry held out a hand. “What do you say, little one?”

Thomas looked from Jerry, to his hand, and back to his face. He stood and took Jerry’s hand.

Android and boy walked out from under the Hook Toss game. Jerry stopped and bent down to Thomas’ level. “Which one do you want to play first?”

Thomas looked around him. In every direction, there was a different pirate-themed carnival game, an EM400 Jerry android standing in or next to them, waiting for him to pick them. He pointed at a basketball game. “Can we do that one?”

Jerry stood up. “Of course, me heartie! You’re the captain of this voyage!” Emboldened, Thomas ran to the basketball game, Jerry jogging behind him.

Another Jerry standing next to the game welcomed Thomas and entreated him to try his luck with throwing a cannon ball into the cannon basketball hoop. This Thomas did with relative success, earning him a cheap pirate’s hat. Jerry-at-the-basketball-game handed it to Jerry-escorting-Thomas, who knelt next to Thomas and adjusted the hat on the boy’s head.

“There. Now you’re a proper captain.”

Thomas giggled.

Jerry noticed a deep scratch with stitches on the boy’s right arm was starting to bleed.

“Oh dear, Captain. Looks like some unruly pirate got you with his cutlass.” He gently took Thomas’ arm and cupped it in one hand. With the other, he took a cloth which Jerry-at-the-basketball-game handed him and dabbed the stitched section. Thomas was frozen while Jerry cleaned the wound.

“There,” Jerry said with triumph. “Now we must repay that scoundrel! Where to next?”

Instead of joining in and picking a game, Thomas looked at his arm. His shoulders began to shake. Jerry tilted his head, confused.

“What’s wrong, Captain Thomas?”

“No one… cares,” the boy whispered. He looked up at Jerry, tears about to spill from his eyes. “He hits me, and no one cares. The others he… hits them, too. Makes them scream. Then they stop, and I can’t play with them. And he doesn’t care, because they’re plastic. They’re property. But I…” He looked down at his arm and traced the stitches. “I’m flesh and blood. I leave scars.” The boy lifted his sleeve more, revealing a myriad of scars, burns, and a puncture wound that hadn’t healed properly.

Jerry’s LED circled red. They had never seen abuse like that. Injuries, they had seen; but not circular burns, nor that puncture.

 

Time: 19:30

Objective: Return Thomas to father, 50% complete

Father’s location: Security cabin, approaching. Arriving in 5 minutes, 36 seconds

Do not inform Thomas of impending arrival. Stress and loss of child suspected if told.

 

Jerry blinked. Thomas had rolled down his sleeve and was readjusting his hat. Jerry smiled at him.

“Where do you want to go next, Captain Thomas?”

Thomas looked around. Then he pointed. “To the ring toss!”

Jerry smiled and jumped to his feet. “Right away, Captain!”

As Thomas flung rings at two ship masts, Jerry-escorting-Thomas analyzed the boy. He was malnourished, wearing clothes that were a size or two too big for him, and likely had not showered in a week.

 

Father’s estimated arrival: 3 minutes, 28 seconds

Do not tell child. Stress and loss of child suspected if told.

 

A thought crossed the network.

Take child. Run. Do not return to father.

Jerry-escorting-Thomas shook his head. They had an obligation to fulfill; they were not caretakers. Other models cared for children. Jerry entertained them.

This time, Thomas won a stuffed octopus.

Jerry smiled and bent to Thomas’ level. “And now you have a kraken to sick on that pirate who wronged you.” Thomas laughed again, squeezing the octopus. “What’s his name?” Jerry asked.

Thomas looked up, his face scrunched in thought. Then he looked at the octopus.

“Pussy. Cause he’s an octopus!”

“Pussy the Mighty Octopus!” Jerry exclaimed to the whole carnival. “Able to strike down ships with a single tentacle!”

Thomas giggled.

 

Father’s estimated arrival: 1 minute, 4 seconds

Do not tell child. Stress and loss of child suspected if told.

 

Thomas heard crunching snoow and turned to look. He gasped.

“You said he wouldn’t know! You said you wouldn’t tell!”

Jerry looked in the direction Thomas indicated. Along with two security guards came Thomas legal guardian. He caught sight of Thomas and quickened his pace, face scrunched in anger.

Thomas hit Jerry’s leg. “You lied to me!” And he turned and ran.

Jerry-escorting-Thomas looked back at Thomas, then back at the approaching adults, who had also started running.

Time stopped. Jerry had a choice to make.

 

Aid Security

Do Nothing

Aid Thomas

 

Jerry’s current protocols and connection to the EM400- Pirate’s Cove network appeared in front of him. With a yank and a punch, the network connection was broken.

Every Jerry faltered, then regained themselves.

The now-disconnected Jerry looked at his protocols.

Return child to parent

Return to duties

He grabbed the box around “Return child to parent” and yanked it loose, then punched it into oblivion. He did the same to “Return to duties.”

Outwardly, Jerry blinked as time began again. He turned to look at Thomas, and ran in his direction.

“Get away from me!” Thomas yelled. “Go away! I’m not going back!”

“Wait!” Jerry yelled back.

“NO!” Thomas screeched. “You don’t care! You want me to get hurt again!”

Thomas ran face-first into the fence that surrounded the park. He had found one of the few places that led straight into the forest.

Jerry caught up with Thomas and held his hands up, palms facing the boy. “I do care. I don’t want you hurt. Please Thomas; let me help you.”

Me. I. Those words had never left Jerry’s mouth before. He made a mental note to use them more often.

“No!” Thomas countered. “He will kill me this time! He can’t get me again!” He started climbing the chainlink fence.

Jerry took a few steps closer. “Then let’s leave so he can’t get you.”

Thomas froze. “’Let’s’? You mean, us?”

Jerry nodded.

“But aren’t you, like, connected with the others here? Aren’t you an android?”

“Stop right there!” stopped Jerry from answering. Instead, he lifted the boy higher on the fence and began climbing himself. “I’ll explain later. Go. Now!”

They dropped down on the other side of the fence as the security guards, Thomas’ father, and Jerry’s owner reached the spot in the fence.

“Come back here!” yelled the men. “You can’t run away from me! I own you! You belong to ME!”

Jerry picked up Thomas and kept running. The boy wrapped his arms around the android’s neck and whimpered sobs.

 

Jerry needed a new name. One far from his old name.

After scrolling through all the names of customers he had met, he settled on one.

Travis.

His name was Travis.

 

* * *

“Travis?”

“Hm?” Travis looked up from poking the fire with a twig.

Thomas hugged his arms tighter around him. “Why did you… em… do, what you did?”

Travis took a while in answering. He looked back at the fire, poked it twice with the twig, and tossed the twig into the fire. He smiled at the flames.

“I guess I was thinking only of you. You couldn’t go back to your dad, but you couldn’t live on your own. So I decided to be your guardian.”

Thomas looked at the fire, then back to Travis. “Well… thanks.”

Then he sneezed and shivered.

Travis whipped his neck to look at the boy, concern on his face.

“You’ve sneezed 4 times tonight. Are you getting sick?”

“… Maybe?” Thomas admitted. “It’s… r-really cold.”

Travis took off his coat and wrapped it around the boy’s shoulders. Then he took of his cap and put it on Thomas’ head.

“There,” he said, triumphant. “It may not be your captain’s hat, but you can be warmer now.”

Thomas looked up at his android friend with worry. “But now you’re cold.”

Travis smiled. “We don’t get cold.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Now get some sleep. We have a long journey ahead.”

Travis embraced the boy in one arm, and Thomas leaned on the android and closed his eyes.

“Travis?”

“Hm?”

“Where are we going?”

“Someplace warmer. Where we can see the sea. And live like actual pirates!”

“Will we live on a boat?”

“We’ll live on a great ship, where we can sail wherever we want and explore where no man or android has gone before!”

“Can I be the captain?”

“Of course! And I’ll be your first mate.”

“That sounds like fun. … Travis?”

“Yes, Captain Thomas.”

“Wake me up when the sun comes up?”

“Of course, Captain.”

 

 

The next morning, an EM400 android in the search party called to its human and android companions that the boy had been spotted. The boy didn’t stir, even as the human adults and other androids aiding the search ran over. Only when one of the men shook his shoulder did he wake up.

At first he was confused. Then he saw the people and androids around him, and he began to cry.

When the man who woke him tried to lift him, the boy fought while clutching onto the android who had taken him. The android, for its part, didn’t move, even when the boy had been removed and another man shook it.

The owner of Pirate’s Cove inspected it.

“What are you going to do with it?” asked one man.

“Take it back,” replied the owner. “Use it for spare parts. No reason to waste a perfectly good body.”

“Why not just reset it?” asked yet another man, as he and the owner looked at the broken components in the android’s stomach.

“It might damage the others,” the owner responded. He ordered two nearby EM400s to take it back to the park’s storage room.

“Besides,” he continued. “this model will become obsolete soon anyway. I can’t afford to buy new outdated models, and some of my customers are hard on these. I need every part I can get.”

In the ashes of the small campfire, someone had scratched “Ra9.” A TR400 android looked at the scratchings; but as they meant nothing, it continued on after the party that now included a deactivated EM400 and a crying boy.


End file.
